Cars have come a long way. History has given us some deadly cars, even if they weren’t designed to be deadly. The Pontiac Fiero ran hot and leaked oil, while the Ford Pinto would instantly explode on impact.
Fortunately, cars must undergo rigorous testing today before hitting the market, but even cars that were rated for safety a decade ago don’t even come close to the safety features you can find in vehicles today.
When you’re hitting the lot to buy a new car, keep an eye open for these safety features that make the cars of today safer than ever before.
Backup Cameras
Backup cameras are a huge convenience. They can prevent accidents too. The camera is positioned on the rear end of your car with a monitor that is located inside the cabin. It allows you to see what is directly behind you without the need to crane your neck, and most cameras include a sensor that beeps if you get too close to a person, another vehicle, or an object.
The nice thing about this feature is that you don’t have to buy a brand-new car to get it. Backup cameras can be purchased separately and installed on any vehicle. They are a must for drivers with small children and those who pull into and out of parking spaces on a regular basis.
Adaptive Cruise Control
There’s no denying the fact that cruise control has made driving easier for many of us. However, that doesn’t mean it made vehicles any safer. Without having to pay attention to your speed, it is a lot easier to stop paying attention to the road and end up a little too close to the car in front of you. That’s especially true if they push on the brakes.
Adaptive cruise control is a little different. It enables you to maintain the same speed, just like regular cruise control, but it also monitors the distance between you and the car in front of you. If you get a little too close, the cruise control on your vehicle will automatically reduce your speed.
Not only does this feature keep you safer, it enables you to use cruise control when you normally wouldn’t. It is just as effective on a busy highway with lots of traffic as an empty highway.
Automatic Emergency Braking
The best line of defense we have against getting into a car accident is our brake pedal. By pushing on the pedal in time, we can prevent accidents.
The key is to push the pedal in time, which many drivers don’t do. It’s not necessarily because we’re distracted either! Our reaction time is just slow.
Automatic emergency braking takes pushing on the brake out of our hands. It is done by the vehicle instead.
There are many different variations of automatic brakes that can keep you safe in nearly every situation. They include:
- Forward automatic braking
- Rear automatic braking
- Automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection
- City speed automatic emergency braking
- Highway speed automatic emergency braking
Blind Spot Detection
It is extremely important to practice checking your blind spots regularly. It’s important to know where your blind spots are too. Not all cars have the same blind spots!
Unfortunately, we aren’t able to keep a constant eye on our blind spots. If we did, we wouldn’t spend any time looking out the windshield, which is even more dangerous! Blind spot detection enables you to keep an eye on your blind spots at all times.
Blind spot detection will pick up anything you might have missed when maneuvering your vehicle, alerting you to possible danger so you can avoid a collision.
Seat Belts and Car Seats
Seat belts could be considered the original safety feature of vehicles. Unfortunately, not a lot has changed about them, but the industry has changed.
Today, you can find many different products that will make your seatbelt more comfortable, as well as safer. You can buy clips to keep the belt lower on your shoulder and pads to make it more comfortable to wear.
Don’t forget about car seats! From infants, all the way up through the teen years, car seats and booster seats are safety rated to keep all ages safe in the car.
Although your car can’t quite drive by itself, technology in today’s vehicles make driving on the road safer than ever. You can feel good buying a new car knowing that it’s working hard to keep your family safe on the road. And if for some reason you are looking to get rid of your car, find how to sell my damaged vehicle online.
4 comments
You are right, the main differences are, of course, in the safety systems and various sensors that can make your trip safer or prevent a collision. Also, my friend car locksmith in Chicago says that lock systems have become more complex and more reliable in new cars.
Do not forget about timely prevention, this will make driving a car safer. During the operation of the car, its reliability gradually decreases, due to the wear of parts, I advise you to study in more detail an excellent article on this topic from Malcolm Mollah
For many drivers, keeping themselves and their passengers safe is of paramount importance. Never before has there been so much technology to avoid trouble on the road. It’s up to us to decide which car we drive, and with which features. Of course, you have to understand that some of the features may never be needed, but it’s thanks to them that, in many cases, they can save lives. I like prestige cars and love renting them.
I always had problems with parking, and now there are programs that help parking, and it is very convenient!